1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the synthesizing of new views of an object from existing images. More specifically, it relates to the creating of a new gaze direction for a human subject in an image.
2. Description of Related Art
When one communicates over a computer network using an audio/video link, but one wishes to maintain some level of personal anonymity, it is a common practice to make use of a computer avatar. In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional (3D) or a two-dimensional (2D) form.
A form of avatar growing in popularity is a 3D graphic representation of the head of the user. The graphic representation need not be an accurate rendition (i.e. it may be an alter-ego rendition), but it is generally desirable that the avatar's facial expression and head/face movement mimic that of the user.
Lately, there has been a push toward creating more accurate representations of a user. This has led to the development of techniques for rendering 3D representations from 2D images, such as those taken by a computer network audio/video communication link, i.e. by a 2D computer camera.
An example of a technique for rendering a 3D model is described in 3D Face Modeling based on 3D Dense Morphable Face Shape Model, World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology 37, 2008, by Kim et al. In this approach, a predefined 3D face model is used to generate a 3D face model from a sequence of images. The 3D model can then be used to render the face from new angles.
As it is known in the art, an active appearance model (AAM) has successfully been used in the past for identifying human faces. An example of introducing the idea of using AAM in a 3D-related application is illustrated in Calculating the 3D-Pose of Rigid-Objects Using Active Appearance Models, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004, by Mittrapiyanuruk et al. This paper, however is not applied to human faces, and instead is concerned with estimating the pose of a rigid objects.
An effort to extend the use of AAMs in 3D face applications is shown in View-Based Active Appearance Models, Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition Proceedings, Fourth IEEE International Conference, 2000, to Walker et al. This paper describes an AAM modeling scheme that includes creating multiple AAM models trained on different view angles of a face so as to facilitate the recognition of a face from different angles. The system can generate novel views of a face, but does not contain 3D shape information.
It would be advantageous to simplify the generation of 3D models from a given 2D image.